Home visits: Psychiatrists' attitudes and practice patterns

Abstract

Although home visits by psychiatrists have been shown to be an effective treatment strategy, the practice is not a common one in the United States. A survey of psychiatrists (n = 212) examined their attitudes toward home visits and their recent practice patterns. The researchers hypothesized that psychiatrists employed by community mental health centers were more likely to have a positive attitude toward home visits and were more likely to treat patients in their own homes than psychiatrists not working at such centers. This hypothesis was not confirmed. While a majority of the respondents agreed that home visits had diagnostic and treatment value, only 15 percent had made a home visit in the past year.

Balancing Practice Policies with Patient Needs

“…The policy of Dr. Rekai's medical group does not as clearly contradict professional ethical standards, but it may harm patients. In the wider health care context, evidence supports the safety and effectiveness of home visits for psychiatric care, from community-based care for chronic mental illness to emergency in-home psychiatric consultations [2][3][4]. It is clearly a very effective way of engaging patients who would not go to a clinic or office visit.…”

Mental health policy, fashion and evidence-based practice

“…Of these, only one, the Daily Living Programme (Marks et al, 1994), was carried out in the UK. The other four studies were undertaken 20 or more years ago in Canada, Australia and the USA (a country where only 15% of a sample of psychiatrists made a home visit in the past year (Reding et al, 1994)). No study has been reported from a health and social care environment that approximates to the UK in the year 2000, rendering moot one of the two robust findings from the literature on home care, that this approach will result in fewer patients being lost to followup.…”